Noor Dubai sees flood of requests

Dubai: Hussain Hassan Al Aaib, blind in his right eye and fast losing sight in his left, has been asking his nephew to take pictures of Dubai and people he encountered during his stay.

The 56-year old Sudanese is in Dubai to undergo surgery to correct his detached retina, courtesy of Noor Dubai, which aims to prevent and correct vision problems in more than a million people worldwide.

The initiative, the brainchild of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has or is helping more than 600 people.

The father of four lost his eyesight after infection set in following his cataract surgery a month ago, causing his retina to detach in both eyes.

On his first visit to Dubai, he has been frustrated he was not able to see the city. "I want to see everything after the surgery. I will look at the pictures," he told Gulf News, smiling happily from his hospital bed.

Despair

His nephew, Mohammad Eisa, said after the complications rose from the cataract surgery, the family thought the retired electrical engineer would be blind for the rest of his life.

The nurse on duty told Gulf News the damage to his right eye was irreversible, but there was a chance doctors at Noor Dubai could save his left one.

So far, dozens from Africa, South Asia and Middle East have received treatment.

One of them, eight-year-old Ahmad Samir Arefai from Syria lost sight in his left eye while playing with his friends, when somebody accidentally poked him in the eye.

This caused his retina to detach and shift progressively. Without treatment, he would have been effectively blind in his left eye in a few years.

His parents were worried as they were poor - his father Samir works as a driver and his mother is a housewife. Including Ahmad, they have five children and one more is on the way.

Ahmad had already had three surgeries and they could not afford any more.

"The surgeries cost too much," Samir told Gulf News, sitting at Ahmad's bedside. "He could only see a few centimetres in front of him with his left eye [so] he stopped playing," he added.

He said they had resigned to Ahmad being half-blind, when they learnt about Noor Dubai. "Now, doctors say he may be able to see around 10 metres in front of him. I am thankful to Shaikh Mohammad and the people of the UAE," he said.